US content weakened, but still critical for subs

US-produced film and TV content has maintained leadership in reach among subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) users in nine major markets in the Asia-Pacific region. And it remains important for acquiring and retaining subscriptions, a new report shows.

New research from consultancy Media Partners Asia is based on passively collected data from 40,000 digital users collected by sister company AMPD. Areas covered include Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, from May 2023 to April 2024.

US content was viewed by 60% of followed users in the first quarter of this year. That gave it an edge over Korean shows, watched by 56% in the region, and Japanese shows, watched by 48%.

But viewership of U.S. content is down from 70% two years ago. And the numbers vary considerably, with 69% watching in Australia and South East Asia, where the viewership is 32%. But in the rich and populous East Asian markets of Japan and Korea, viewership is only 11% and 9% respectively.

Although the reach of US content has steadily declined to 70% to 60% over the past two years, it continues to play an important role in acquiring subscribers. Even in very local markets such as Korea, Japan and Indonesia, US content was responsible for 15-30% of SVOD customer acquisition, says MPA analyst Dhivya T. “Long appeal and a variety of scripted genres across series and films, plus science fiction and fantasy promote the popularity of American content in APAC. Fan-favorite sitcoms and procedurals like ‘Friends’ and ‘The Office’ have a lasting impact on engagement, with library titles making up 68% of the top 500 US titles in APAC.”

The report offers a deep dive into the production studios powering popular US content, with Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal in the lead role. Third-party studio content drove about 75% of US content engagement on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, while Disney+’s viewership was almost entirely produced by Disney companies. Major third-party producers include WBD, NBCU, Paramount and Sony across multiple platforms in the region.

The report shows that Netflix dominates US content engagement, accounting for 50-75% of US streaming hours per market last year. The availability of local subtitles and dubs (Thai, Filipino, Indonesian, Japanese) at launch has increased the impact of Netflix’s US originals in APAC, with titles such as One Piece, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Extraction 2 having the highest reach in APAC.

Prime Video, the SVOD leader in Japan, drove 23% of US streaming hours in Japan, while Disney+ accounted for 15-20% of US content viewership in Australia, Japan and Korea. Major local platforms such as Stan and Binge (Australia), Hulu Japan and U-Next (Japan), Wavve and Tving (Korea) have captured a significant share of US content engagement in their respective markets.